oofs from rotting. The calves may be
pastured with their dams after the autumn equinox. Bull calves should
not be altered before they are two years old, as they recover with
difficulty if the operation is performed sooner, while if it is done
later they are apt to be stubborn and useless.

"As in the case of other cattle, the herd should be gone over every
year and the culls thrown out because they occupy the room of those
which might be profitable. If a cow loses her calf she should be given
another to nurse, taken from a cow which has not a sufficient supply
of milk. Calves six months old are fed wheat bran and barley meal and
young grass, and care should be taken that they are watered morning
and evening.

"The rules for taking care of the health of neat cattle are many. I
have those which Mago has recorded written out and I take care that my
herdsman reads them frequently.

"I have already said that a yearling and a two-year old bull should be
provided for every sixty cows, though some have more or less cows in
the herd: thus Atticus has two bulls for every seventy cows. Some
observe one rule as to the number of cattle to the herd, some another.
I am among those who think that one hundred is enough, but Atticus
here, like Lucienus, has one hundred and twenty."

So far Vaccius.

_Of asses_

VI. While Vaccius was speaking, Murrius had returned with Lucienus and
now began:

"I propose to tell about asses as well I may, because I am from Reate
where the best and the largest are found; indeed, I have sold to the
Arcadians themselves asses of this race and of my own breeding. He who
wishes to establish a good herd of asses should see in the first place
that he procures jacks and jennies of prime age so that they may breed
as long as possible, strong, well made in all parts, of full body and
of a good breed, that is to say derived from those localities whence
the best specimens come; thus the Peloponnesians, so far as possible,
buy asses bred in Arcadia and we in Italy those from the valley of
Reate. For if the best of those delicious fish we call _muraenae
flutae_ are taken on the coast of Sicily and the best sturgeons at
Rhodes, it does not follow that they are of equal delicacy in all
seas.

"There are two kinds of asses, one wild, which is called the onager,
of which there, are many herds in Phrygia and Lycaonia; the other
domestic, as they are all over Italy. The onager is fit for use for
breeding becaus